15 Instances of Athletes Fighting Fans

In light of the whole Marcus Smart incident—in which the Oklahoma State forward shoved a Texas Tech fan a few weeks ago—I thought it would only be appropriate to take a look back at some of the other moments where athletes just couldn't control their emotions, and got spectators involved.

Although it's probably no secret which one falls on top of my list—hint: it involves the man formerly known as Ron Artest—some of the ones in between might refresh your memory on how often these types of fights happen.

Frank Francisco

BEN MARGOT/Associated Press

One trend you'll most likely pick up on throughout this piece is that athletes don't like to be heckled.

Like most of the other guys on here, former Texas Rangers relief pitcher Frank Francisco fell victim to some inappropriate words launched his way during a game in Oakland in 2004, upsetting Francisco enough to toss a folding chair at the guy providing the gab.

Marcus Smart

Oklahoma State men's basketball player Marcus Smart may be one of the top players in the country and an expected high draft pick should he declare after this season, but he has to prove he's way smarter than he acted in a game against Texas Tech a few weeks ago.

Shoving Red Raiders superfan Jeff Orr following some sort of taunt, Smart surprisingly just received a technical—though his head coach Travis Ford did sit him the rest of the game—but later got nailed with a three-game suspension.

And if you're wondering, his Cowboys teammates failed to win any of those games without him.

St. Leonard Cougars vs. Hamilton Hurricanes Fans

Anytime an entire team—or the majority of one—climbs into the stands to take on some fans, it's always a bad scene.

And this instance was no different.

Following some jeers from supporters of the Hamilton Hurricanes of the Ontario Football Conference during a 2010 game, members of the St. Leonard Cougars went in fully protected with helmets and pads to take on the taunting fans.

Hey, what do you expect from a bunch of 18-22 year old kids who get shouted at?

Tie Domi

To all you fans out there who think that getting close to the action is a solid idea, go ahead and see what happens when you get what you asked for—like Philadelphia Flyers fan Chris Falcone did during a game back in 2001.

Tie Domi was one of the biggest crazy men to ever play in the NHL, so one would think it would be wise to yell at someone else.

Not in Falcone's case.

Falcone got squirted with water and fell into the sin bin after the glass gave way, allowing Domi to give the guy several licks before security broke it up.

Ty Cobb

While it's no secret that Hall of Famer Ty Cobb wasn't exactly loved by anyone in the game of baseball—just take a look at some of these quotes about the guy—he was one hell of a ballplayer.

Still, his rough reputation was warranted by a few incidents that saw him get into hot water.

One of those moments was in 1912 when Cobb ran into the stands during a game against the New York Highlanders and assaulted a handicapped fan, Claude Lueker, after Lueker was heckling the former outfielder.

Cobb was ejected, indefinitely suspended and fined $50—at first.

Thanks to a strike from his teammates—who actually hated him themselves—in which they fielded a team of college and sandlot players in their next game, Cobb's suspension was lifted after just paying the fine.

Eric Cantona

One has to admire a guy like former Manchester United great Eric Cantona.

Not only did he end up being one of the best players to ever suit up for The Reds, but Cantona also appears to have zero regrets for an incident that happened between him and Crystal Palace fan Matthew Simmons back during a match in 1995.

With the player saying, "I have a lot of good moments, but the one I prefer is when I kicked the hooligan," it doesn't look like he cared about his suspension and fine one bit.

10-Cent Beer Night

After giving a 10-cent beer night for some odd reason back in 1974, Tribe supporters let all that booze go to their heads—and mouths, and subsequently, their actions.

Following a drunk Cleveland fan running onto the field in the ninth inning and snatching Rangers player Jeff Burroughs' hat and glove, his Texas teammates came to defend him as hundreds of sloshed Indian fans poured onto the field.

With both teams armed with bats to help fend off any crazy, drunk people, a few players and umpires were injured in the riot and the game was ultimately forfeited by Cleveland.

Boston Bruins vs. New York Rangers Fans

While I was personally first introduced to the name Terry O'Reilly in one of my favorite movies ever, Happy Gilmore, it wasn't until a few years later that I found out why he was such a badass.

This video was the convincer.

Climbing over the boards and attacking New York Rangers fans, O'Reilly and his Boston Bruin teammates took on an entire section of Madison Square Garden in 1979, with former defenseman Mike Milbury taking the shoe off of spectator John Kaptain and beating him with it.

The commentators may have thought the players were at a disadvantage because they were in skates, but Milbury and his mates didn't seem to let that affect them.

The Malice at the Palace

While it would be easy to blame just one guy—the athlete formerly known as Ron Artest—for being responsible for this whole brawl starting, one can't ignore the fact that things were already out of hand before the forward was lounging on the scorer's table—as evidenced by the guys suspended.

Sure, Artest's reaction to climb up rows of seats and attack the guy he presumed to have thrown a cup at him wasn't right—it ended up being the wrong dude, anyway—the shove from Detroit Pistons Ben Wallace with little time left was the match that started the fire.

And once the flame was lit, it got hot—fast.

Strangely enough, the 10-year anniversary of this incident will be early next NBA season, so hopefully we won't see anything this big ever happen again.

On a positive note, the fan who did throw the cup and Artest are now friends, so something randomly positive did come out of it.